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From the Director's Desk January 2010 ATP achieved some remarkable milestones in 2009. Most notably, we received our first large institutional grant from WWF and BMU/KfW, the German development bank, to plant over one million trees. ATP became positioned to receive this grant as a direct result of the generous support provided by you, our loyal donors, with which we built a track record of integrity and success over the years. The process of implementing this project presented many logistical challenges and opportunities which afforded us valuable lessons. Hundreds of seasonal workers received employment from planting these trees, and we were able to purchase equipment which will be available for future reforestation projects. Rural and Mountainous Development, the program which is the umbrella for ATP’s reforestation initiatives, planted a total of 994,860 trees in Lori, which were grown in the Mirak Family Reforestation Nursery in Margahovit, and in backyard nurseries of the Getik Valley. Altogether, with CTP, the total number of trees planted by ATP this year was 1,056,924. This was the largest number of trees ever planted by anyone in the modern history of Armenia in one year. We were able to expand our understanding of global best practices for growing and planting trees, as well as the social aspects of community forestry. Our Community Tree Planting program, established in 1994, continued to successfully build relationships with residents of 184 urban and rural sites by planting over 62,000 fruit and ornamental trees. The program is extremely popular, and the overall survival rate for CTP trees has increased to 83 percent after three years. The estimated fruit harvest for CTP trees this year was over 511,000 pounds. Karin and Khachpar nurseries provide the seedlings for CTP and have become widely respected as training and education facilities for schoolchildren, university students, and professionals. This year, we implemented a practice of allowing 20 percent of each nursery’s territory to lie fallow annually, to regenerate the land’s productive capacity. In order to continue propagating fruit trees on an even larger scale, we are considering a new nursery specifically for this purpose since these trees require up to six years of care before being transplanted. Our Environmental Education curriculum, “Plant an Idea, Plant a Tree,” was updated with 11 new topic areas and reviewed by experts from the National Institute of Education to be implemented as required coursework in public schools. Forty teachers were trained on implementing the manual, and we plan to train 300 additional teachers in 2010. Overall, 764 individuals attended environmental education programs at the Michael and Virginia Ohanian Environmental Education Center at Karin Nursery, and over 3,000 community residents were trained in tree care. Our Sustainable Forestry Manual, authored by Zachary Parisa of Yale’s Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry, was published in Eastern Armenian. We plan to conduct trainings for residents of Margahovit, Aygut, and Tsakhaber using the manual as a guide for clarifying each community’s forest values and developing plans for forest management. Building strong community relationships and environmental awareness is an essential precondition for successful reforestation programming. Through the generosity of Mrs. Virginia Ohanian, ATP was able to purchase and renovate a building in Margahovit, which will become a regional center for environmental studies, and ATP’s northern program outpost. We plan to begin environmental education programming and community trainings on Sustainable Forestry there in 2010. For the next 2–3 years, we intend to scale back the size of our reforestation initiatives and focus on building social capital and cohesion in communities where we’ve planted new forests. This will be accomplished through a much stronger emphasis on environmental education and values clarification. Thank you for your vision in helping to make all of this possible for the future of Armenia. Jeff Masarjian
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